a. Field of the Invention
We have been accustomed in this country to use cheap energy without thought of ways of using less by improving the various devices and machinery we normally run. One of the areas that has now come to the fore is the better and improved fuel mixture both to increase efficiency and decrease pollutants. In this area the easiest way to to effect a great increase in economy with a small expenditure of money is to place some sort of device between the carburetor and the intake manifold of a motor vehicle. Such a device usually requires little, if any, machining or adjustment and is a relatively easy way to effect savings without great changes in the carburetor and intake manifold. This, of course, has to do with vehicles without fuel injection systems or any measured amounts of fuel and air being injected into cylinders simultaneously. While such devices have not proved popular before, chiefly, because of cheap gasoline, it is expected that with older and heavier cars it will become necessary to bring some sort of economy to such flagrant gas burners. Although, there is now no government regulation requiring older cars to maintain some sort of gas economy, the future may require such devices in order to merely run such vehicles.
b. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous patents have been granted attempting to improve on the usual carburetor whether 1, 2 or 4 barrelled by inserting various devices between the carburetor and the intake manifold. Interest in these devices has never been very strong even after the 1974 gas crisis. But with the advent of the present fuel shortage interest has awakened again and is now forcing people to consider energy conservation in every purchase and repair they make. We are becoming aware, especially in this country, that energy of all types but especially gasoline was used in motor vehicles without any thought of their cost and up until recently the efficiency of the gasoline motor was far secondary to the power generated and the style and size of both the car and its engine. Since the latest fuel crunch people have become conscious of gasoline consumption and its relative efficiency as compared to smaller and lighter models. The market for larger cars has become depressed and large cars are fast becoming "White" "Elephants" too costly to run using their present unimproved fuel systems. New and costly attempts are now being made to change from gasoline to other forms of power such as battery electricity and even liquid gas. But the installation of a motor capable of burning both propane and ordinary gasoline is very expensive and not worth the effort in older cars. While the use of electric motive power has only a very limited range as yet in an area used to the casual longer ranges of the average car and driver.
But more and more as in other areas reductions in costs and increases in efficiency are being sought and found. The automobile carburetor and fuel system is one of those areas where costs are being reduced by using more efficient means to burn the fuel without going into extravagant costs and new expensive devices.
And devices to make the larger car as efficient to run as a smaller car is not only an investment in saving money but, also, in preserving safety and reducing maintenance as well. Safety statistics show that accidents between smaller vehicles and trucks show a much larger death rate than similar accidents between larger cars and trucks. And this is occuring while the trucks are getting larger and the cars smaller. So, too, is the result of repairing larger as compared to smaller cars. The smaller car when involved in an accident involve more of the body than the larger car and correspondingly costs more to repair than the larger car where discrete parts of the body can be more easily replaced than the smaller car.
Activity has been evidenced over the years in this area by various patents granted with a trend toward easily installed devices with no moving parts and no servicing required. Thus by the nature of these devices the system either better atomizes and or vaporizes the fuel air mixture leading to greater efficiency and more economy.
Devices of this type are those illustrated by the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,868,902; 1,937,875; 3,077,391; 3,437,467; 3,938,967; and 4,015,574. These are of the nature of some ribbed structure, either with openings in the center or sides with some adding air either at the top, bottom or sides aimed primarily at increasing the turbulence of the fuel mixture. But these devices do not shut off liquid mixtures sliding down the walls of the carburetor and manifold and thus some mixture is never properly mixed at any time.
Another, U.S. Pat. No. 2,685,504 teaches both the use of no turbulence and using the heat of the engine block to increase vaporization by having a series of metal strips deep into the intake manifold thus absorping the heat of the engine block to increase vaporization.
Another, U.S. Pat. No. 3,393,984 teaches the use of a Teflon like covered plate that is not wettable and causes the liquid globules to fragment and thus better atomizes the fuel mixture. The so called homogenizer plates which are really vanes or blades are not crucial to the invention. But the overall structure of the invention does not allow the fuel mixture to slide down the walls unchecked.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 4,092,966, uses a plate with a sleeve attached to the plate which sleeve hangs into the intake manifold and which sleeve has lands and grooves helping to break up the fuel mixture.
These patents are the most pertinent to this area of development and show a continuing line of development in this field to further aid in atomizing and vaporizing the fuel mixture. None has received any acceptance so far as is known and acceptance probably is dependent on the realization by the public that there really is a fuel shortage.